Professor Jacqueline Kinghan
- Professor of Law and Social Change (Law)
Biography
Jacqueline Kinghan is a Professor of Law and Social Change at the University of Glasgow. She is Co-Director of the Glasgow Open Justice Centre and Co-Director of the Emma Ritch Law Clinic.
Jacqueline holds an LLB (Hons) from the University of Edinburgh and an LLM from Harvard Law School (Kennedy Memorial Trust Scholar). She completed her PhD at Goldsmiths, University of London (AHRC CHASE studentship) in 2018. She was called to the Bar in England and Wales in 2007 (Middle Temple Queen Mother Scholar).
She is an expert in access to justice, clinical legal education and legal aid. Her teaching and research explore the legal professional identity and values of social justice lawyers.
Jacqueline works closely with charities, law centres and NGOs across the UK in considering how the use of legal tools might alleviate disadvantage and create social change. Her monograph Lawyers, Networks and Progressive Social Change: Lawyers Changing Lives was published by Hart in 2021. As an academic adviser to the Westminster Commission on the Sustainability of Legal Aid, she co-designed the most comprehensive workforce survey of legal aid lawyers conducted to date in England and Wales. The findings were published by Hart in 2023 in an open access book, Legal Aid and The Future of Access to Justice.
Jacqueline previously held a Senior Lectureship in Law and Social Justice at Newcastle Law School and was the Co-Convenor of the Newcastle Forum for Human Rights and Social Justice. Prior to this, she was the founding Director of the UCL Centre for Access to Justice and established the clinical legal education programme at UCL Faculty of Laws, including a strategic litigation partnership with the charity Just for Kids Law and pro bono projects with local, national and international charities and NGOs. Together with colleagues, she had oversight of the UCL Integrated Legal Advice Clinic (iLAC) in Stratford, East London. The Centre received the UCL Social Enterprise Award in 2015.
Research interests
Jacqueline studies the relationship between lawyers and social movements as well as the impact of different legal tools (advice and representation, policy advocacy and strategic litigation). Her work is also concerned with legal education in the UK and the extent to which it prepares students for careers as social justice lawyers.
Jacqueline has expertise in a range of research methodologies including ethnography, participatory action research, focus groups and large-scale surveys. She has published research reports in partnership with civil society organisations using the law and human rights-based approaches across the UK. Her work includes scholarship on legal education, and she is currently co-writing the first comprehensive student textbook on the theory and practice of clinical legal education (OUP, 2025).
She is often consulted to support impact measurement and to design monitoring, evaluation and learning frameworks. Together with Professor Lisa Vanhala, UCL Political Science, Jacqueline acts as learning partner to funders, charities and government bodies. Together they have worked with organisations including the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Children in Need, the Lankelly Chase Foundation, The Baring Foundation, The Legal Education and the Public Law Project. In this capacity, Jacqueline regularly convenes and delivers workshops, expert roundtables and wider learning events across the UK.
Teaching
Emma Ritch Law Clinic (Level 4)
Access to Justice in Theory and Practice (Level 4)
Law in Action (UG Orientation Programme)
Additional information
Jacqueline previously served as a member of the Access to Justice Committee of the Law Society of Scotland and as a part-time member of the Scottish Human Rights Commission.
She was a judicial assistant in the House of Lords (2008-2009) to Lord Rodger of Earlsferry, Lord Collins and Lord Kerr. She also worked for the Chief Executive in the early establishment of the UK Supreme Court.
Jacqueline is a member of the RCSL International Working Group for Comparative Study of Legal Professions and the Socio-Legal Studies Association. She is a member of the Advisory Board for BUP Perspectives on Law and Access to Justice book series.